Isekai Walking - Vol. 8 Ch. 69 - Special Slave

[BladeGrip]

I am surprised the editor let this through...

It sells, to the target audience (i.e. Japanese) at least. The manga having gone for this many chapters so far proves that it sells well enough not to get axed (yet).

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

It's not as simple as "slavery bad"

You feel there's moral ambiguity in owning another human being?

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

so those who find the fiction unpleasant to read can simply leave.

Or they can comment and express their dislike of lazy writing which will defy any and all logic to enable a cringey trope. Maybe those who can't stand any criticism of the manga they read can simply leave.

 

[Mivy]

THERE IT IS SLAVERY IN ISEKAI

 

[Maiorem]

You feel there's moral ambiguity in owning another human being?

Okay, explain to me your moral basis of saying that ownership of another human being is wrong.

 

[nueee]

Good job, well done!

 

[TwilightNawi]

Were magical words and isekai stories with litrpg world systems also a thing a few hundred years ago?

Actually, the whole Isekai concept comes from mythology so it actually has existed for millennia. (Chinese, Japanese, and Nordic mythology come to mind)

As for the rpg-esque systems, that comes from the culture of our time period. It's a pretty universally understood framework nowadays; used so the target audience, modern people, can see stories the way the authors want us to see them.
Beyond that, she wants to stay with him, this makes a way to do that; we could debate the fine details, or we could just read the story and not judge a character/plot point/author off of a single snapshot. This author has actually shown slavery a hell of a lot more accurately than most authors; there's different types, there's the 'blacks-in-the-americas' type, the 'indentured servitude' type (which also varied dramatically more than people realise), and plenty of other types (though most could be classified as a variation of indentured servitude); this situation follows the apprenticeship type pretty closely. Honestly, I would, and could, write a full blown thesis about slavery and its many types with their benefits and issues, but I have shit to do today and a splitting headache from getting like two hours of sleep, so I'm gonna pass on that for now.

On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, they walked (based on the average Japanese male height) 153 miles (246 km) since we last checked on his status if the TL was accurate in their step count calculations. Even Jesse Castenda maxed out at 35 miles a day.

 

[TwilightNawi]

You feel there's moral ambiguity in owning another human being?

I probably shouldn't bother, cuz you pretty clearly think that you're morally correct, but in more regulated societies it served as a way to ensure a roof over your head and some food or as a way to escape from a dead-end situation. The way the US did it was unequivocally horrendous, but there are some societal benefits to having such systems when properly regulated, monitored, and managed.

 

[MeteorCat07]

Ooh, insults. I guess I should be offended.
Here:
Happy now?

Now, let's be serious for a moment. Much like you, I only quoted a part of your comment, but I read it entirely.
You, on the other hand, seems to not have read mine.

...

Now, I hope you'll pardon me for not concluding with some braindead insult, as seems customary in your culture.

Alright then, then I guess I will insult you for real this time considering how you act.

Take a look back at the length of your comment where you first replied to me, then take a look back at mine.
Didn't read yours? You idiot, the part of your comment that responded to mine was barely a paragraph of 5 to 6 sentences, why in the heck would I bother not reading it? You, on the other hand, seem to be the kind of person who thinks they have the moral high ground, just because they're trying to be in the right. Do I even need to present my case as to why you're a dumbass? No? Good 'cause your attitude and personality are so poor, it almost made me wish you a good life full of friends who won't have any falling outs with you. We both know that isn't happening.

Slavery doesn't -or at the very least shouldn't - instantly solve problems that bureaucracy make mildly annoying.

Have you ever fucking dealt with bureaucracy? Because something tells me you haven't. Adoption in this case wouldn't be something like "oh it'll be over in 2 hours", no that shit takes days to fucking weeks to motherfucking months. Don't try and test me with your bs. It solves it because it keeps it off the record, solves the problem of future checks, and in the future the "slave" collar can just be removed if needed. Don't try and process it, you've already proven you won't try and understand it anyway. Makes me wonder why i'm still responding to you, honestly.

(Hey you asked for it, don't blame me.)

I do have a problem in the case of isekai MCs, because they should know better. At the very least, like Sora in a previous chapter, they should be reticent unless it's a last resort. Or a psychopath.

........So let me get this straight, you're expecting a kid, who was either barely into highschool/still in late middle school, to know better.

Alright folks! Mister Wyrm here deserves the Dunce hat for not understanding the perspective of younger people!

But no for real, expecting a teenager to "know better" is like expecting an 8-year-old who just found 50 bucks, to not spend it all on freaking candy. Especially, in a case like this where yes, they know about it through education, but that's IT. They've only seen and heard about it through pictures, and on that front, they "know better" than to treat said person wrong.

living an overall comfortable life.

Why yes! If you discount the part where in the story literally a few days back he was attacked by the person currently with him, who, was also the first true "slave" he encountered in this world, and discovered that they were ordered to bring him back. Not to mention - he's barely a hop skip and jump away from said kingdom (maybe still inside it even for all we know). If the King were to at all send troops or any form of trackers to be on the lookout for people matching their description prior to discover that they were "dead", then yes, I think it's more than obvious how quickly that could lead to problems.

So hey, comfortable? Physically yes, mentally? I really doubt it.

He isn't anywhere close to needing slavery unless the plot forces it on him in the worst way possible. Like telling him that he can't take care of a child he just saved unless he literally (re-)enslaves her.

Refer to some of the things I said above. In the next chapter, it's shown that her becoming a special category slave is akin to a mutually agreed upon private transaction. Of which, leaves no trace. No documentation, etc.

Sure, the "maybe" people tracking him could ask the town's people and the guards, but that's about it as far as I know of in this manga. As long as he's still in that damn country, he'll be getting stopped every single time, and it'll probably be even more suspicious for them both to show up at the border with any form of - let me SAY IT AGAIN: Identification. They had a device to confirm for blood relations, not to mention she was too young to get ID on her own. Orphanage, as some people here have said? Please tell me you saw the tremble lines, right?

But hey, whatever at this point. I think we both know you're not invested in this story, considering it's, from what I've read, way better than the LN.

Also? I'm American European. I asked you to use your brain last time because it was obvious you didn't try and draw the links of what I said.

Let's also stop this here, and let each other have an opinion. In my eyes what's been done in this Manga is fine. For you, it ain't.

Also? If it bugged you that much, apologies for the insults. Have a nice day~

 

[Wyrm]

You, on the other hand, seem to be the kind of person who thinks they have the moral high ground, just because they're trying to be in the right.

I won't waste my time or yours with answering most of this response, in part because you read my post, but you didn't attempt to understand it.
You're missing my cues at nuance here or sarcasm there. Or maybe you willfully stop at superficial meanings. I won't try to guess one way or the other: in any case, we're not actually communicating.

However, I'm replying because I'm pretty amused at the section I quoted.
By the tone of your sentence, you seem to imply that my attitude is wrong. Scratch that, you say it explicitly right afterwards.
If I'm doing something wrong by "trying to be in the right", does that mean you're not even trying? And that's a good thing?
I'm probably missing a nuance here, but it does seem hilarious when I read it.

All that said, I agree with your conclusion: we can part ways with a disagreement. I'm perfectly fine with that.

---

(Edit: )
I've read the next chapter based on your mention of it. Seriously, it makes things worse. I don't object to a medieval-fantasy world featuring slavery... I even don't object to privileged people there defending it as "beneficial to the slaves", which is the exact BS that was used to excuse real-life slavery... that makes things somewhat realistic...

I objected, and still object now, to three specific points, that are indeed deal-breakers to me:
1. the use of slavery as a workaround for bureaucracy, to the point of legalizing kidnapping... (seriously, "consent" is a weak excuse: you can get unaware children to "consent" to anything for a piece of candy... and yes, that's a little bit of sarcasm - emphasized because you seem to have missed it last time - but it should still communicate the idea),
2. Sora (not some "generic kid" as you implied) already knows that slavery is bad as he has already demonstrated before, but still goes for it here with little to no hesitation and absolutely no investigation into other options as he takes the words of only two people (a slave trader - who has vested interest in pushing for enslavement - and a guard - who might or might not have links to the aforementioned slave trader),
3. the target here is someone who has already been the victim of an abusive case of slavery and she shows no hesitation to being enslaved again... which shows disregard for her previous ordeal and/or demonstrates how easy it is to get consent from a child. (Which is why there are a lot of things that children are not considered as legally able to consent to in modern societies. Even in this medieval setting, the bar should at least be set to that "special" slavery because, as I've just said, it opens a pretty easy loophole for legal kidnapping. Get a child, blackmail / sweettalk them into consenting to slavery, go to a trader without any identification for you or the child, pay a bit of silver - it's not even that expensive. Presto, you get legal authority superseding even that of the child's parent.)

One argument that can at least explain point 2 still makes things too stupid for me to tolerate, namely that Sora "knew" that slavery was bad when the first trader talked about slaves as "goods", but is easily sweettalked into believing in "good slavery" because he falls for the oldest and worst trick in the book: "the benefits to slaves" argument, which is explained here in its most transparently BS version. Seriously, there are so many retorts to the slaver's speech that I could barely manage to finish the chapter.

These whole two chapters fully killed it for me. I'm not even interested in little miss happy slave being able to see Ciel.
I'm done.

 

[Valhalla_101]

Wow. People in the comments treating any form of slavery like the plague/taboo. Two things to consider tho. One is this is based in a medieval type of world so society isn’t as developed as now. And two back then people had different mindsets and laws. This may be a story being told by someone now but it’s to tell a medieval fantasy story.

At least the author isn’t doing what other authors do and have weird stuff with slaves. And no I don’t mean the other kind, get out of the gutter.

 

[Gletscher]

Ah ok.

We're at the prerequired slavery propaganda part of almost every japanese fantasy story.

I'm astounded (but glad) there wasn't any hot springs arch yet.

 

[T-sama]

I'm astounded (but glad) there wasn't any hot springs arch yet.

 yet

Wait until Sora becomes rich by selling glorious Japanese food that was cooked a thousand times, not to mention the  rice, he's gonna be a billionaire.

 

[Dexaru]

lol reading the comment of this one feel like i'm on twitter right now, a buncha moral high-ground faker try to make themself look like a better person by mindlessly whining about anything that view as bad in general without even thinking of the context.
it like saying all soldier and war veteran, war hero are criminal cause they murder a lot of people. what that ? they did it to protect the people and the country ? who care, context dont matter according to those people.

 

[TestAddress]

I know there is isekai sex slave somewhere...

 

[TheProtectorOfPureHeartedGirls]

Can't believe the loli little girl will get enslaved...

 

[totaly_random_guy]

chris hanson would like to chat with you about your "special slave"

 

[breakthelimit]

Yo at least increase his perk to 2 exp/step what’s the purpose of skill level if it’s only stay at 1 exp/step.
Only changing job? and it’s only can be changed after level up.

 

[Godc0re]

I'm a bit peeved that he switched jobs so quickly. He basically alchemied a gun and switched to scout. And this was while there was an active potion shortage! It just feels like there's so much more they could've done with the alchemist route instead of "he can detect things even better now!".